Spam Kingpin Robert Soloway Arrested

Are you receiving a lesser amount of junk emails in your mailbox? If yes, the reason may be the US federal authorities have arrested Robert Alan Soloway, 27, who is counted among the world's biggest spammers.

Robert, the kingpin of the Internet spam, was arrested after being accused by a federal jury on several counts of online fraud, money launderingas well as identity theft.

Tim Cranton, a lawyer with Microsoft and Senior Director of the Microsoft's global Internet security Programs, in a statement published by KOMOTV on May 30, 2007, said that Robert is among the world's top ten spammers and is a big trouble for Microsoft's customers.

Among several other charges, Robert is accused of deceiving customers who took his on-payment services for sending commercial email messages in bulk or who purchased his software for sending spam themselves. Further, Robert is also accused of using "botnets" to mask the origin of emails and of giving fake return addresses of businesses or real people. These people and businesses have also allegations of unrequired mailings.

The US prosecutors, in a statement published by The Age on May 31, 2007, said that the users who clicked on an email link were guided to his site where Robert promoted his skills to send about 20 Million email ads over fifteen days for just $495.

As per US prosecutors, between November 2003 to May 2007, Robert "spammed" millions of email messages for promoting websites where his company, Newport Internet Marketing, was selling goods and services. Robert regularly changed his site to dissimilar Internet addresses in order to evade detection. In 2006 he started listing them with the Internet service providers of China in an effort to disguise his participation in the scam.

The prosecutors further said that even though Microsoft succeeded a $7 Million civil sentence against Robert in year 2005 as well as a small ISP (Internet Service Provider) operator in Oklahoma succeeded a $10 Million sentence, he still continued with his tricks.

If Robert is indicted as charged, he can face sentence of over 65 years and a penalty of US$ 250,000.